Find your BHAG

Find your BHAG

28th April 2025

[Source: The Probe April 2025]

I came across a great business term recently, and it’s a new one on me – BHAG. Pronounced Beehag, it’s a term coined by Jim Collins in his books ‘Built to Last’ and ‘Good to Great’. Unlike all the boring acronyms we’re used to, BHAG brilliantly stands for… ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’. 

On further exploration of this intriguing term, it seems that a BHAG is often a bold statement that may appear ludicrous but is actually possible. You can apply this to your life, career or business but it has to be big. Think big, the biggest you can imagine. The definition of the BHAG is the combination of a deep passion, a crazily ambitious goal and your ‘economic engine’ – in other words, what’s going to power you to get there. 

Jim’s book is based on a 6-year study into what makes companies great – and the BHAG concept features heavily. He states that a fox knows many things but a hedgehog knows one thing very well – and that single-minded focus translates into success. The idea is that you create a sentence that sums up your vision in a few short, powerful words that exude energy and urgency. You can see how I’d be hooked.

Microsoft: ‘To put a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software’

Google: ‘To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’

Nike: ‘To crush Adidas’

Starbucks: ‘To become the most recognised and respected consumer brand in the world’

Honda: ‘We will destroy Yamaha!’

To inspire and get attention your BHAG should ideally have an element of shock factor and provide the big headline. To make it work effectively, to translate the initial statement into actions, support your BHAG from a number of angles and perspectives with more traditional goal setting. 

Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal can bring multiple stakeholders together as it should be easy to engage with and recall – unlike the BHAG’s more timid, conservative relation – the mission, vision and values statement… snooze. 

I’ve talked to a few people and have heard a couple of interesting responses. The ones that shout the loudest are those that play up to the word ‘audacious’ – bold, daring, fearless and also presumptuous and cheeky. It certainly shakes up the predictability of day-to-day business and career paths.

So how does the BHAG relate to us? How do the big dreams and ambitions of the multi-national corporates filter down to dentists at different career stages? For me, I am enjoying the thought process behind the BHAG headline. It’s provoking introspection, focus and conversation. What is my BHAG? It could be related to my practices or training business, it could apply to my family life or personal training goals. I’m working on it but I think the common strand is in using my passion for endodontics to change lives – whether that’s through education, securing my family’s future or by helping patients. I’m not sure yet but I am really looking forward to nailing my own BHAG headline.